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It is difficult to find a single Armenian in Akhalkalak who would speak the state language, Georgian, and would use it in everyday life. This Armenian-populated city is in the Samtskhe Javakheti province of Georgia.

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It has a population of about 350,000, of whom 62 percent are ethnic Armenians. Armenians constitute an overwhelming majority, 95 percent, in the Akhalkalak region that includes 64 villages, of which only six are Georgian-populated.
The environment in Akhalkalak is Armenian: the names of shops and main streets are Armenian. Even Georgians here speak Armenian. Vladimir, 70, can be considered as an ethnic minority representative in this Armenian-populated town. He is an ethnic Georgian, who besides his mother tongue also speaks Russian and Armenian. In perfect Armenian he tells of how Armenians and Georgians have lived in peace and without any serious problems and continue to live side by side without any problems today.
  During Soviet times when Russian was also used in Georgia, Georgian was not so much required for the Armenians of Javakhk.
  Armenians there received their education in their native language and in Russian. They used Russian to communicate with state institutions in Soviet Georgia. The teaching of the Georgian language in Armenian schools in Georgian territory was not on a due level and was among extra subjects. Head of the local authorities (sakrebulo) of the Akhalkalak region, Khachatur Ayvazyan, remembers that they preferred playing football to Georgian classes.
  Russian was pushed to the background after the collapse of the Soviet order and Georgian became the state language of the newly independent Georgian state. The Russian language continued to be used only among national minorities. By force of the old tradition, an Armenian who doesn’t know the state language, resorts to Russian to write an application to state structures. The native language is used in applications and notes sent to officials who are ethnic Armenians.
  “I don’t know how to quit this situation. A villager writes in Armenian. What can I do? How can I possibly refuse to accept his application,” Akhalkalak regional administration head (gangebeli) Artur Yeremyan says. The Armenian official’s knowledge of Georgian is on a domestic level. He communicates with government members in Russian, and often, as he himself says, he stays after meetings to once again discuss the decisions and resolutions written in Georgian and improve his knowledge of the state language. The officials of the region who are ethnic Armenians know only the rudiments of Georgian and can only greet someone in this language or have some conversation around the table.
  The local authorities in Akhalkalak have 32 deputies. Only seven of them are ethnic Georgians, and they speak Armenian as fluently as their Armenian colleagues. The meetings of the local elected representatives of the sakrebulo are held in breach of the Georgian legislation, in Armenian. “It is unlawful,” deputy, co-chairman of the unregistered “Virk” party David Rstakyan says about their meetings. Official resolutions and protocols in the administrative building of Akhalkalak’s sakrebulo are in Georgian, Armenian and Russian. The local ATV12 and Javakhk television companies in Akhalkalak also broadcast in Armenian. The “Akunk” newspaper is also published in Armenian.
  Goga Khachidze, the representative of the presidential administration in Samtskhe Javakheti, thinks that in the course of time ethnic minorities will learn the Georgian language. One has to have patience and wait. He refers to the efforts of the government through programs of teaching of Georgian to ethnic minorities that are often assisted by international organizations.
  One of the Georgian government programs is related to advanced studies of the Georgian language at school. The study of the state language in Armenian schools became strict only in recent years. Georgian is taught beginning from elementary school, but local authorities are not content with the quality of teaching yet.
  Akhaltskha resident Manushak Kiloyan is in the tenth grade of the local secondary school. She says that she knows Georgian, but her knowledge of Georgian does not satisfy her in order to continue studies in Georgia. Therefore, she has decided to continue her studies in Armenia. The insufficient qualify of specialists of Georgian, as well as the Armenian environment does not allow Armenian pupils to have a good command of Georgian so that they can apply to higher schools in Georgia instead of going to Armenia. “Ninety percent of high school graduates go to Armenia to continue their education,” Artur Yeremyan says. “This phenomenon means that Armenians abandon the area,” head of the “A-Info” public organization Khachatur Stepanyan says.
  The Georgian government has not met the requests of Javakhk Armenians for a joint Armenian-Georgian university to be opened in Akhalkalak. Instead, as Khachidze notes, next year the president has pledged to give an opportunity to 100 applicants to enter Georgia’s higher schools without the knowledge of Georgian.
  David Rstakyan and his supporters are dissatisfied with the Georgian government’s policy.
  “We don’t feel government care towards national minorities,” he says.
  The mistrust of Javakhk Armenians towards their own state even more deepened as a result of the latest reforms in the education system, when headmasters of Armenian schools were dismissed from their jobs with explanations that they do not know the state language. Only seven headmasters of local schools passed the Georgian language tests, of whom only one was Armenian and he was from a Georgian-populated village.
  The results of the language tests of Armenian schools’ headmasters convinced the Armenians of Javakhk that the government instead of integrating them had decided to achieve their assimilation. They see the only solution in giving the Armenian language the status of a regional language.
  The Armenians of Javakhk invoke the European framework convention on the protection of national minorities which was partially ratified by Georgia which proceeded from the existence of conflicts in its territory. Article 10 of the convention enables regions where representatives of national minorities traditionally live or live in sizable numbers to use their mother tongue if they wish both within their communities and at state institutions.
  Referring to the convention, the Armenians that constitute a majority in the Samtskhe Javakheti region demand that Armenian be given the status of a regional language. Local authorities in the Akhalkalak region have already made a decision to apply to the country’s president and parliament to make changes in the country’s basic law and make a provision there for Armenian as a language with a regional status. Their demand concerns not only Samtskhe Javakheti, but also to the Azeri populated Kvemo Kartli region.
  The local Armenians think finding a solution to this issue requires urgency and is even overdue.
  “If no regional status is given to the Armenian language, Javakhk will be gradually losing Armenians,” Stepanyan says. “After our language is given that status, 80 percent of local Armenians will spare no effort to learn Georgian,” representative of Akhalkalak’s “United Javakhk” Democratic Union Artur Poghosyan says. If the regional status is given to the Armenian language, the Armenians of Samtskhe Javakheti can use their mother tongue along with the state language in the places of their residence, receive education in Armenian and they will not be dismissed from their jobs because they do not know Georgian.
  Mels Torosyan, who is an economist by training, does not speak Georgian. During the Soviet times he worked as an economist in Akhalkalak, now he edits the “Akunk” newspaper and represents the Union of Public Organizations of Samtskhe Javakheti. Recently, there was a vacancy for an economist in Akhalkalak, which was not entrusted to the experienced economist because he does not know Georgian. “They brought a Georgian,” he complains and tries to show by his example the discriminative attitude of the government towards ethnic minorities.
  “The road is the best means to learn a language,” says representative of the presidential administration in Samtskhe Javakheti Goga Khachidze. Last year, the 200-kilometer-long road from the Georgian capital Tbilisi to Akhalkalak was almost impassable and could be overcome only within 5-6 hours. The Georgian government has completed the Tbilisi-Akhalkalak section due to the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s funding and promises to complete the construction of a 50-kilometer road linking Akhalkalak to Armenia. Georgian authorities, through Khachidze, consider it a childish thing to demand that Armenian be given the status of a regional language. They are patiently waiting for Armenians to learn Georgian, while Armenians say it will take them years to do that. In the meantime, Javakhk, locals say, will be losing its Armenian population.
  The story was prepared with the assistance of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (www.iwpr.net)
By Naira Bulghadaryan